Winning tournament basketball is all about getting on a hot streak at the right time. Alabama did just that Saturday night, going from the worst 3-point shooting team in the Southeastern Conference to a team that shot 54.5 percent from behind the arc in a 67-50 win over Mississippi State.
“In the second half, our guys came out with great energy,” head coach Anthony Grant said. “In the second half, we had a dominating performance all around.”
The barrage of 3-pointers for the Crimson Tide came after a first half that was close in every aspect of the game.
Alabama had only one less rebound than Mississippi State in the first half and shot just three percent better from the field. Alabama had one more assist than the Bulldogs in the first half but also had one more turnover. Both teams made nine field goals in the first half.
“In the first half, the game was, to me, somewhat disjointed,” Grant said. “We couldn’t get into a good flow. Defensively, we had a couple breakdowns, and Mississippi State, being a good team, took advantage of it. I thought we were fortunate to go into halftime tied.”
The deadlock that carried into halftime was created by a “heads-up play” by sophomore point guard Trevor Releford.
With less than a second remaining in the first half and Alabama down 25-22, Releford was fouled in the act of shooting a 3-pointer. Releford would go to the free throw line and make all three to end the half.
“[Releford’s free throws] gave us a chance to regain the momentum and tie the game,” Grant said. “It’s a different feeling going into the locker room down three as opposed to a tie game.”
The locker room feeling sent Alabama into a shooting frenzy, as the Tide started the second half on a 15-5 run on 3-point shots from Releford and freshmen guards Levi Randolph and Rodney Cooper.
“I thought we took the last play of the half and played the first five minutes of the [second] half just like that,” Mississippi State head coach Rick Stansbury said. “That was basically the game.”
In the second half, Randolph shot 4-for-6 from the field, including one 3-point shot and a perfect 4-for-4 from the charity stripe. Randolph also had six rebounds in the second half, compared to just one in the first half. All of Cooper’s eight points came in the second half. Sophomore guard Charles Hankerson scored all of his seven in the second half as well.
Alabama’s second-half effort on the defensive side of the court was just as important as the offensive explosion. Mississippi State forward Arnett Moultrie, who came into Saturday’s game leading the SEC in double-doubles, played all 40 minutes and scored seven points going 1-for-3 shooting from the field.
“They doubled him every time he caught it,” Stansbury said. “They played a lot of zone to keep him from getting the ball.”
Green said it was a personal note to stop Moultrie after he torched the Tide for 25 points and 13 rebounds in the teams’ earlier meeting in Starkville.
Doubling Moultrie often left sophomore center Carl Engstrom in one-on-one situations with Mississippi State forward Renardo Sidney.
“I thought Carl had a huge impact in the second half,” Grant said. “He doesn’t score a whole lot, but he gets you blocks. If he didn’t block, he altered a lot of shots they took.”
Grant praised the balance with which his team played.
“Tonight, I thought it was a great defensive effort combined with an outstanding offensive effort,” Grant said. “I thought our offense allowed us to do some of the things we did well defensively.”
